Customer Reviews

Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of the previous reviews have touched upon how well this book has covered its subject matter and there is no disagreement here.
A few mentioned the artwork but not enough. Brown's work is astounding. In the introduction to Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Brown mentions the influence of Herge's Tintin and Harold Grey's Little Orphan Annie on his work and his wondrous black and white, six panel pages are truly an homage those great comics he cites.
For both story and artwork, five stars are too little for Brown's beautiful comic-strip biography. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in either history or graphic novels/comic strips.

Chester Brown spent the better part of five years on this comic book biography. It was worth the effort. Louis Riel was a religious leader of an uprising in Canada in 1885. Brown describes the events leading to the uprising, he shows how it played out, and then he wraps up the story with Riel's final fate. Along the way he touches lightly on issues of religion, political conspiracy, and insanity. For those readers who want additional information --- or who want to double-check Brown's accuracy --- there is a bibliography and extensive footnotes.

What sets this book apart is the fact that it's a big comic book. Brown tells the story using silent pictures whenever possible. Characters are drawn in a flat but beautiful way. No one is depicted as a cartoon, but the tone never matches a straight history book, either. Brown goes further by using the footnotes in a surprising way: He tells you that he got things wrong. Then he says he isn't sure why. At first, these tiny confessions seem strange, but then you realize he's just being honest.

If you're looking for a great graphic novel, this is the book to buy. Chester Brown has taken the story of a historical figure very few Americans have heard of and presented it in a unique way. Although it was written for adults, Louis Riel is a perfect gift for a young reader --- it's a comic book, but a very sophisticated one.

Noted Canadian graphic artist Brown here mines his country's less distinguished history to tell the captivating story of Lous Reil, a late 19th-century Metis (mixed French and Indian) leader. The story begins in the 1860s, a time when only a small portion of present-day Canada was actually known by that name, the middle third of present-day Canada (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) was claimed as the property of the British Hudson Bay Company, and the Western third of present-day Canada was claimed by Britain. In the middle of the Hudson Bay Company land, about 50 miles north of the Minnesota border, a loose cluster of English and French parishes known as the Red River Settlement was home to several thousand settlers. When the Canadian government struck a deal with the Hudson Bay Company to purchase their land, it upset the Red River locals. These settlers, many of whom were of mixed French and Indian blood, and some of whom had been there for generations, were concerned (and rightly so) that they would loose their land under this arrangement. They embarked on a course of self-rule that put them in a state of rebellion against the Canadian government, and the educated, bilingual Louis Reil emerged as their leader.

Brown does an admirable job of retelling the fairly complex story of the settlers' 16 year struggle to stave off rule from Ottawa. There's a lot of to-and-fro, as Reil and other key figures move around a lot, including trips to Ottawa, Montreal, Washington, DC, and London. There are also some major time shifts that make the story a bit choppy, but there's no doubt that history comes alive in Brown's hands. Despite dropping out of sight for years at a time, Reil remains the figurehead of the "rebels" (mostly Metis, but also some disgruntled Irish Fenians), even as he descends into bouts of religious madness and is committed to a mental institution by his friends. The final portion of the book becomes tragic, as the Canadian government sends troops to crush the rebellion, and Reil resists all advice to wage a guerrilla war which might have made things quite difficult for the government. His reticence to use "Indian tactics" results in a total rout of the Metis, and he is captured and hung after a show trial. There's are strong themes of cultural and economic imperialism, capitalism, and racism that will interest those interested in the less heroic side of North American history. For example, one plot point shows how politicians schemed with the rail barons to send troops by rail as a way of raising public support for railroad funding.

The artwork is fantastic, contained in a formal grid of six square panels per page. It will strike many as old-fashioned in its sparse, 2-dimensional style (which Brown attributes to the influence of Little Orphan Annie). The panels are expertly balanced and calm, showing a mastery of tone and mood. And as with all works published by Drawn & Quarterly, it's beautifully produced, with top-notch printing on a rich cream stock and great two-tone printed cloth cover. One minor quibble I have is with the use of the word "biography" in the title. Given that Brown's excellent annotations to the story make it clear that he's changed a great number of details from the historical record, it seems somewhat misleading to subtitle it this way. It is a fictional account based on real history, but not entirely faithful to it, and so might be better termed "A Historical Fiction" or "A Fictional Biography". No one would ever write a prose biography and have footnotes indicating that they had changed details. Still, it's an extensively researched work, and a great place to start learning the story of a Canadian folk hero.

Chester Brown's drawings are stark and sparse. The six-panel format used consistently throughout the biography is an excellent frame for telling history. The evenness of the presentation suggests that a flat and neutral point-of-view is used to tell the story of an apparently controversial figure. Not that you should necessarily trust such an assertion about Brown's telling, but it is highly effective.

It strikes me as highly unfortunate and typical that I have to come to this fascinating bit of Canadian frontier history this late in life and in such a format. Still, this is what I find myself looking for in comic books these days. Interesting stories about unusual topics.

For many years I had little interest in the story of Riel. It seemed obscure, irrelevant, and uninteresting.

Reading this excellent comic book changed all this. Brown's book makes Riel's story come alive in a very clear, and easy to understand way. Prior to reading this, all I knew about Riel were some vague facts about him being a Metis leader who staged a rebellion of some sort. I know know him to be the modern founder of the province of Manitoba, a foe of Sir John A. MacDonald, and savvy political leader with democratic ideas ahead of his time.

Brown makes Riel's story fast-paced, interesting, and even contemporarily relevant. Unlike many other Canadian historians, Brown is not a snob to his audience. You don't need to know much about Riel before reading this book, the author goes out of his way to give all relevant information whenever nessisary.

This book is an excellent educational material for anyone interested in this key period of Canadian history. It is a perfect example of the diverse medium of comics, and proves the art from is suitable for a wide variety of story-telling, even the very serious.

I would love to see more comic book history books of this style. I hope Brown writes another someday.

Yes, I'm a Franco Manitobain. Yes, I think Louis Riel is a hero ... at least to many in Manitoba. And that's my bias or point of view. So, I was very happy to find this book.

I thought the graphics were wonderful. I really like the way Chester Brown accommodated English speaking readers but still made the point that many of the characters were really speaking French -- he used a different font but the text was in English. I thought that was a clever way of solving that problem.

It's a great way to learn about history -- through dialog, text, and comic strip drawings.

The history itself was fairly good. Although there were a couple of times when I felt that something was being described through the lens of the Anglo government in Ottawa. Also, I would have liked more Métis history in this book.

Most of the previous reviews have touched upon how well this book has covered its subject matter and there is no disagreement here.

this is a wonderful book that my mother very much enjoyed reading about her 5th great cousin.
THANK YOU

Brown retells the history of Louis Riel using his unique drawing skills. Each of the characters are given blank eyes and expressionless faces, as well as enormous hands and small heads - deliberate choices by the artist.

The story is a bit dusty for most of the book. This law was passed which meant this border changed which meant this happened which meant people had to move until this law was passed, blah blah. Unless you're really into 19th century Canadian history regarding the Metis people you'll gloss over these sections. Maps are included to show the shifting borders.

What's interesting is when Louis Riel loses his mind and believes he's a prophet from God. There are some brilliant sections like the siege or when Louis and his men are held captive. There's quite a comedic scene with one of the racist prisoners shouting expletives (you just see "XXX" in the caption baloon) and coupled with his blank face and cavernous mouth it made me laugh.

"Louis Riel" shows a more confident storyteller in Brown and his drawing style has developed since "I Never Liked You". It's a good, thorough read and reminded me of Rick Geary's work which is also brilliant.

My older daughter knows that I am an omnivorous reader, and often read the most unusual books. She found this book in a little shop in California, and sent it to me for Christmas. Now, I've never really read a graphic novel before (unless you consider "The Gunslinger Born" one), but found the idea of using that form to retell episodes of history intriguing. After reading this work (and it only took very few hours), I have great admiration for the author/artist, who captured an unknown (at least to most Americans) episode of Canadian history, and made it come alive through his drawings. This is a tale of political greed and corruption, and a brave stand for fairness on the part of a group of people in the Western "wilderness" of Canada between 1869 & 1885. Even though you know how the story is going to end, you'r so caught up in the book that you hope it will finish differently. I sincerely hope that this wonderful author graces the reading world with more works of this type; we need them!